Argued by some to be the greatest scientist to ever live, Newton shaped our understanding of how the natural functions and more. He gave us his three laws of motion that would go on to be the foundation of classical mechanics which describes the motion of Macroscopic Objects such as projectiles and planets. He then went on to answer the big question, which is, “Why don’t we float away from the earth?” The legend is that an apple fell on Newton’s head and he discovered the forces of gravity.
Isaac Newton’s Rainbow Theory
In 1666, Isaac Newton was the first person to discover that white could be split into 7 different colours. He cut a pinhole into his window shade and let in sunlight which showed up on his wall as a round illuminated area. Refracted by a prism, it turned into an oblong area with a rainbow of colours. He was then able to obtain a beam of light with a pure colour.
Famous Gravity Theory
One of the reasons Isaac Newton is well known, is because of his gravity discovery. As legend has it, In the 1660’s Newton was sitting under a tree in his mothers garden. Suddenly an apple fell onto the ground next to him. He then picked up the apple and thought, “Why didn’t the apple fall up or go sideways?” That was when he discovered gravity. In the first law, an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it. In the second law, the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. In the third law, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction.
Grace, Year 6
